Wheeled hatch covers



1961 c. E. l. DAHLlN WHEELED HATCH COVERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 16, 1960 INVENTOR BY Ma.

Nov. 7, 1961 Filed Nov. 16, 1960 c. E. l. DAHLINI WHEELED HATCH COVERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR United States Patent 3,007,431 Patented Nov. 7, 1961 fitice corporation of Sweden Filed Nov. 16, 1950, Ser. No. 69,589 3 Claims. (Cl. 114-292) Present invention has references to a device at hatch covers which comprise at least three sections being interconnected by means of hinges and being at their under side provided with sealing mouldings. One of said sections is by means of a pivot shaft connected with the hatch coaming and the section or sections situated most distant from the pivot shaft are wheeled so as to facilitate the movements of the sections on the hatch coaming at the closing and opening of the hatch cover. The running path on the coaming is provided with notches in which the wheels can sink down so as to bring the sealing mouldings on the under side of the sections to rest against the upper side of the hatch coaming'. So as to prevent the wheels of the sections situated most distant from the hinge shaft on the coaming at the opening of the hatch from sinking down into the notches situated closer to said shaft which should provoke a braking of the movements of the sections, the wheels as well as the notches have previously been arranged in the side pieces of the coaming in different lateral paths. Such an arrangement has required a great total width of the running path. According to another proposal, the wheels and of course also the notches have been manufactured with different widths in such a way that the wheels and notches situated farthest from the hinge shaft have been made wider than the ones situated closer to said shaft. Such an arrangement gives a very complicated construction and also involves the drawback that wheels of different sizes have to be kept in stock to make it possible to replace a wheel without delay.

The invention has for its object to overcome the drawbacks recited in the aforegoing. The main feature of the invention is that the sections provided with wheels in front of or behind the wheels are provided with a glide shoe, said notches made so long and arranged in such way in the coaming that the wheels as well as the glide shoes will sink down into said notches when said sections are pushed into closing position whereby said sections in a way known per se are lowered to such a level that the sealing mouldings will rest against the upper side of the hatch coaming, the distance between the glideshoe and the wheel of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated farthest from said shaft being greater than the corresponding distance of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated closer to said shaft and the notch situated farthest from said shaft having a greater length than the notch situated closer to said shaft, the last mentioned notch having a length less than the distance between the glide shoe and the wheel of the pair situated farthest from said shaft.

The invention will now be elucidated with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of an opened hatch cover according to the invention,

FIG. 2 shows on a somewhat enlarged scale a partly broken side elevation of the cover in closed position,

FIG. 3 is a similar side elevation of the free end of the section, situated farthest from the hinge shaft,

FIG. 4 is a side elevation corresponding to the side elevation in FIG. 3 but with a somewhat modified cover section,

FIG. 5 shows a section on the line VV in FIG. 2 through one of the coarning side pieces and the side portion of the cover section situated above said coaming side piece, and

FIG. 6 is a plan view on a reduced scale of one of the long sides of the hatch way.

in the drawings, 1 denotes the coaming of a hatch way which is closed by a cover comprising four sections 2, 3, 4, and 5. The sections of which section 2 in the following will be referred to as the first section, the section 3 as the second section, the section 4 as the third section and section 5 as the fourth section, are attached to each other by means of hinges 6, 7, and 8. The first section 2 is connected with the hatch coaming 1 by means of a shaft 9 which is situated at some distance from the rear border 10 of the hatch way. By means of a traction wire 11 running over delinking pulleys 12 and 13 to a lifting jack (not shown), the cover can be brought to close the hatch way (FIG. 2) and to open it up (FIG. 1). The sections 25 are kept in open positions by means of locks 14, 15, 16, and 17.

According to the embodiment shown in FIGS. l3, the fourth section 5 is on both sides and in the vicinity of its free end border provided with wheels 18 and the third section 4 is in a similar Way near its both end borders provided with wheels 19, 20. Further, these two sections are provided with glide shoes 21 and 22. The glide shoe 21 of the section 5 is arranged to the left of the Wheel 13 as disclosed in FIGS. 2 and 3 while the glide shoe 22 on the section 4 is placed to the right of the wheel 19, i.e. between this wheel and the hinge 8. The distance 23 between the wheel 18 and the glide shoe 21 is greater than the distance 24 between the wheel 19 and the glide shoe 22. The glide shoe 21 is with its end situated o posits the wheel 18 shaped with a sliding surface 25 which extends obliquely upwards. The wheels 18, 1.9, 20 and the glide shoes 21, 22 are situated in the same vertical plane in the longitudinal direction of the coaming side piece in question. The wheels 18, T9, and 20 are preferably by means of self-lubricating bearings journalled on each their shaft 26 projecting horizontally sidewards from the hatch sections. As obvious from FIG. 5 each wheel 1% is maintained on its shaft 26 by means of a washer 27, the latter being by means of screws 23 attached to the outer end of said shaft. Elastic sealing mouldings 29 are arranged on the under side of the sections 2-5.

The wheels 18, 19, and 2t extend with their lower portion below the lower surface of the sealing mouldings 29. So as to bring the sealing mouldings 29 to rest against the upper flange of the hatch coaming which forms the running path for the wheels 18, 19, and 24), said flange it? is provided with notches 31, 32., and 33 into which the wheels are to sink down (FIG. 5). The notches 31 and 32 have such a length 34 and 35, respectively, that not only the wheels 18, 19 but also the glide shoes 21 and 22 can sink down into the notches. Thus, the notch 31 is longer than the notch 32 and the latter is of course longer than the notch 33 for the wheel 20 having no glide shoe. The wheels 18 and 19 extend with their lower portion somewhat below the lower ends of the glide shoes 21 and 22.

The device functions in the following way. At the opening of the hatch cover (from. the position shown in FIGS. 2 and 3), the sections are by means of the lifting jack under intermediary of the wire 11 pulled in the direction of the arrows 3&5. The wheels 18, 19, and 20 then run up and out of their notches 31, 32, and 33 in the flange 30. The lifting of the free end border of the fourth section 5 is facilitated thereby that the slide surface 25 of the glide shoe 21 is pressed against and supported by the adjacent boarder of the notch 31. When as shown in FIG. 2-the wheel 18 of the fourth section 5 passes the notch 32 (which the wheel 19 was engaging when the cover was in closing position), the glide shoe 21 slides on the flange 3G and thereby prevents the Wheel 18 from sinking down into the notch 32. Thus, there will practically be no braking effect. The course of events will be the same when the wheel 18 passes the notch 33. Due to the glide shoe 22 also the wheel 19 is prevented from sinking down into the notch 33 when passing over the same.

The course of events will be the same when at the closing of the cover the wheel 18 passes over the notches 33 and 32 and the wheel 19 passes over the notch 33. The closing as well as the opening operation of the hatch cover can thus be carried out without any braking when the wheels pass the notches in front of them. Nevertheless, the cover sections when moved to closing position of the cover, in a suitable way sink down to such a level that the sealing mouldings 29 are pressed against the upper side of said flange 3t).

In FIG. 4 there is shown an embodiment of the fourth section 5 with its glide shoe 21', belonging to the wheel 18, situated outside, i.e. to the right of the wheel. In such a device the wheel 18 will at the opening up of the cover lift the section by its rolling up against the adjacent border 37 of the notch 31. Due to the decreased friction obtained by the wheel 18'there is rolling friction instead of sliding friction as in the embodiment according to FIG. 2 at the beginning of the opening up of the cover-the opening up of the same is facilitated.

The present invention has been described in detail above for purposes of illustration only and is not intended to be limited by this description or otherwise except as defined in the appended claims. The invention can also be used at covers having three sections but also at covers having more than four sections. It is essential that the length of a notch is somewhat less than the distance between a glide shoe and its wheel in the pair glide shoe and wheel of an adjacent section situated away from the shaft 9.

What I claim is:

1. In a hatch cover comprising at least three sections interconnected by means of hinges and being on their under sides provided with sealing mouldings, one of said sections by means of a shaft hinged to the hatch coaming and sections situated away from said shaft provided with wheels so as to facilitate the movements of said sections on said hatch coaming at the opening up and closing of the cover, the running path for the wheels on said coaming having notches down into which the wheels can sink, the last mentioned sections in front of or behind the wheels being provided with a glide shoe, said notches having such a length and being arranged in such a way in the coaming that the wheels as well as the glide shoes will sink down into said notches when said sections are pushed into closing position, said sections thereby in a way known per se being lowered to such a level that the sealing mouldings are brought to rest against the upper side of the hatch coarning, the distance between the glide shoe and the Wheel of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated farthest from said shaft being greater than the corresponding distance of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated adjacent said shaft and the notch situated farthest from said shaft having a greater length than the notch situated closer to said shaft, last mentioned notch having a length less than the distance between the glide shoe and the wheel of the pair situated farthest from said shaft,

2. In a hatch cover comprising at least three sections interconnected by means of hinges and being on their under sides provided with sealing mouldings, one of said sections by means of a shaft hinged to the hatch coaming and sections situated away from said shaft provided with wheels so as to facilitate the movements of said sections on said hatch coarning at the opening up and closing of the cover, the running path for the wheels on said coaming having notches down into which the wheels can sink, the last mentioned sections in front of or behind the wheels being provided with a glide shoe, said notches having such a length and being arranged in such a v ay in the coaming that the wheels as well as the glide shoes will sink down into said notches when said sections are pushed into closing position, said sections thereby in a wayknown per se being lowered to such a level that the sealing mouldings are brought to rest against the upper side of the hatch coaining, the distance between the glide shoe and the wheel of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated farthest from said shaft being greater than the corresponding distance of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated adjacent said shaft and the notch situated farthest from said shaft having a greater length than the notch situated closer to said shaft, last mentioned notch having a length less than the distance between the glide shoe and the wheel of the pair situated farthest from said shaft, said wheels with their lower portions projecting somewhat below the lower ends of their respective glide shoe.

3. In a hatch cover comprising at least three sections interconnected by means of hinges and being on their under sides provided with sealing mouldings, one of said sections by means of a shaft hinged to the hatch coaming and sections situated away from said shaft provided with wheels so as to facilitate the movements of said sections on said hatch coaming at the opening up and closing of the cover, the running path for the wheel on said coaming having notches into which the wheels can sink, the last mentioned sections in front of or behind the wheels being provided with a glide shoe, said notches having such a length and being arranged in such a way in the coaming that the wheels as well as the glide shoes will sink down into said notches when said sections are pushed into closing position, said sections thereby in a way known per se being lowered to such a level that the sealing mouldings are brought to rest against the upper side of the hatch coaming, the distance between the glide shoe and the wheel of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated farthest from said shaft being greater than the corresponding distance of the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated adjacent said shaft and the notch situated farthest from said shaft having a greater length than the notch situated closer to said shaft, last mentioned notch having a length less than the distance between the glide shoe and the wheel of the pair situated farthest from said shaft, the length of each notch in said coaming being somewhat less than the distance bctween the glide shoe and its wheel in the pair of glide shoe and wheel situated farthest from said shaft relatively to said notch.

No references cited. 

